raw

The Jenkins situation is so weird. Demoting to 2nd team RT before pads even come on. Mysterious absences from practice for 2 weeks. Trade rumors, which the GM didn't deny. Character assassination about his "demeanor" and potentially being too sensitive for the NFL. Then almost immediately gets thrown in as the starter at a position he's never played, AFTER signing a veteran at the position. Trade rumors still happening. Team wouldn't confirm he's the starter or squash trade rumors despite the fact he got every rep with the 1s for the last 2 weeks. Even today, Eberflus says he doesn't rule out Patrick at guard when he comes back. To me, that's another confirmation that Jenkins may still be on shaky ground. Because they aren't moving Whitehair back to C. So that means Mustipher will be there, and Patrick would be RG. It's like, "hey, we don't like you. You don't fit our vision. But you are the most talented guy on the roster, so we'll play you anyway". I honestly feel bad for the kid.

I always looked at this as a winnable game. Lance isn't a rookie, but he doesn't have a lot of snaps in the last 3 years and I think Eberflus can do some things on defense to maybe get a turnover out of him. And if they prevent the big play, they'll have a chance in this game. Home opener. Excitement for new regime. IDK that momentum carries over after 2+ weeks, but Bears coming off of a strong performance and Niners struggled. But even 2020 Jags who went 1-15 won Week 1. So even bad teams can ride the wave of optimism early.

Just a reminder, most teams don't claim players. Most practice squads consists of players who were in camp with the team that retains them. I would imagine though that the Bears make 1-2 claims. If I were Jaylon Jones or whoever they deem is the 7th WR, I'd probably worry about my position on the 53-man. Thomas Graham Jr, I'm guessing the team wants to keep him around. He hasn't practiced all training camp and probably not going to be ready to go Week 1. But if they IR'd him before 4pm today, he'd be out for the season. So my guess is they'll hope nobody claims an injured DB with 2 games of NFL experience, and then keep him on the PS until he's healthy and then he'll take a roster spot. I also hope they can keep the following around for the practice squad: Trevon Coley, DT Sam Kamara, DE Lachavious Simmons, OG Isaiah Coulter, WR Nsimba Webster, WR Demarquis Gates, LB Chase Allen, TE Demontre Tuggle, RB

Jake Tonges made the roster as a 2nd FB. But he lined up a TE more than FB this preseason, so they have 3 TEs.

Michael Schofield and Lachavious Simmons both cut. Sounds like Jenkins is the RG starter and not being traded. Simmons had a good preseason from all accounts. Wonder if he could be kept on the practice squad. Thought he had an outside shot to make the 53

Did me mentioning Mond not come across as a clear joke?

I wouldn't mind adding Mims either. But there's 0 chance I trade for him after trading for Harry. And I don't think he's all that dissimilar to N'Keal to go crazy over him. Honestly, think Carolina has dibs on him if he leaves NYJ. Played for Rhule at Baylor. Some guys I'd be looking at if cut: WR- Anthony Schwartz, Cleveland - probably not getting cut as a 3rd round pick in 2021, but speedster that is WR4 at best right now and may not have a role. WR Preston Williams, Miami- loaded WR group now that they added Tyreke and Cedric Wilson. Huge WR that has some NFL success, again with bad QB play CB Anthony Brown, Dallas- Kelvin Joseph may take his starting job, Daron Bland has looked great this preseason. Saves 5M if cut, Bears appear to be looking for a CB2 OL Whoever the Eagles Cut, Philly - Andre Dillard seems most likely, if they can't trade him. Younger than Reiff, more interesting as swing tackle but they have a few guys that would be good depth here. Preston Williams cut. Other guys I'd add to look at for the Bears: DT McTelvin Agim, Broncos WR Tyler Johnson, Bucs OT Le'Raven Clark, Eagles QB Kellen Mond, Vikings (just so Justin Fields can make fun of him to his face and throw it in Chris Simms' face that he was a better prospect than Justin) Also Bears have cut Trevon Coley DT, who looked pretty good in preseason and Demontre Tuggle, RB.

Tyler Johnson from the Bucs released. Whichever Tampa WR and Eagles OL was released was always going to be someone worthy of an NFL roster.

Yeah, seems like old info that the national guys are hanging on to. I don't know why you start a guy and, from what I've heard, give literally EVERY first team rep in practices the last 2 weeks just to trade him. I know getting a veteran like Schofield ready in 2 weeks probably isn't a huge deal. But Jenkins has also been pretty good the last 2 weeks, and they have publicly praised him in the media. I don't know why you'd get worse by trading a young guy for a draft pick that isn't going to be as talented as the guy you already have. I don't see many scenarios where a team is willing to trade more now than they were 2 weeks ago when Jenkins was probably legitimately on the market. And if they aren't offering more now, then the Bears would have traded him 2 weeks ago if the offers were any good. Just makes no sense. That being said, it would be very Bears-like for it to happen.

I loved what I saw too, and I’m starting to get pumped about seeing how Fields’ 2nd year pans out. That video focuses on the one TD pass which was obviously a major breakdown in coverage but his dart to Griffin was golden, all the rollout stuff was excellent, and he seemed to be able to survey his options rather than having to lock in. I think he might’ve even done a little no-look on one throw. It was good all-around. The no look and looking off defender stuff (3rd down conversion on sidelines & Kmet TD pass) is simply high level QB stuff. Shows a clear understanding of how to manipulate defenders to get what he wants. Funny, the sideline play was similar to last week, when he did the opposite. Last week.he had the sideline guy, but tried to get the TD. This time he looked at the deeper guy to open up the sideline. I know things aren't going to always come as easy as it was vs Cleveland, but it's still nice to see. The 1st half yesterday is what good offenses look like on a regular basis.

I wouldn't mind adding Mims either. But there's 0 chance I trade for him after trading for Harry. And I don't think he's all that dissimilar to N'Keal to go crazy over him. Honestly, think Carolina has dibs on him if he leaves NYJ. Played for Rhule at Baylor. Some guys I'd be looking at if cut: WR- Anthony Schwartz, Cleveland - probably not getting cut as a 3rd round pick in 2021, but speedster that is WR4 at best right now and may not have a role. WR Preston Williams, Miami- loaded WR group now that they added Tyreke and Cedric Wilson. Huge WR that has some NFL success, again with bad QB play CB Anthony Brown, Dallas- Kelvin Joseph may take his starting job, Daron Bland has looked great this preseason. Saves 5M if cut, Bears appear to be looking for a CB2 OL Whoever the Eagles Cut, Philly - Andre Dillard seems most likely, if they can't trade him. Younger than Reiff, more interesting as swing tackle but they have a few guys that would be good depth here.

I feel like the Bears have several positions still open on the roster. At LB, you have Roquan and Nick Morrow. After that I could see any of Jack Sanborn, Joe Thomas, Matt Adams, Demarquis Gates or Caleb Johnson make the roster. That's literally every LB on the roster. Doubt they keep all 7, but all have shown special teams ability this preseason. At CB, Johnson and Gordon are the only locks I see. Tonight, we've seen Lamar Jackson, Devontae Harris, Greg Stroman, and Kindle Vildor working with what played of the 1s. We haven't seen Thomas Graham and Tavon Young at all this preseason and they were both working with 1s in minicamp. Obviously WR and OL are fluid situations as well. Mooney is obviously a lock. EQ St Brown has started every preseason game, so probably a lock. Would think Jones Jr and Pringle based on contract/draft status are locks. Have seen a lot of Pettis tonight. Saw a lot of Sharpe in the opener, but not since. Then there's Harry, who's hurt but could be back in the first month of the season. Looks like we may have the starting 5 (Jones, Whitehair, Patrick, Jenkins, Borom). Reiff played with the 2s tonight, and with the money he's getting, I'd think he'd be the swing OT. Mustipher may have to start Week 1, so I'm guessing he's staying. Schofield, Carter, Eiselen and Thomas all could be the 8th/9th guys based on draft status (Carter, Thomas), experience (Schofield), or in Eiselen's case, may need a backup C if Patrick has to miss a couple weeks. I wouldn't put it past Poles to grab 4-5 guys off waivers for the bottom of the roster for any of these positions, not to mention if there's a DT out there that can rush the passer.

No Garrett, Clowney or starting CBs for Cleveland, but this team needed it's #1 offense to show something, against anyone. And boy did they ever!

Maybe I’ve read too many “a league source says” stories but the perception out there seems to be that Smith is a very good, not great player at a non-premium position. It would be beneficial for him to prove that he is great going into FA or a franchise tag. not saying that will happen with a guy who is said to have maturity issues and is operating without the guidance of an agent but it makes all the sense in the world for him to ball out. It does, and I'm sure when he's in there, he'll play well. But this is a guy that hasn't always made the best decisions. He had the mysterious absence for a game a few years ago. He's now held out on 2 different occasions. I just worry about what happens Week 10 when this team is 3-6 and he has an annoyance with an ankle or something. It's probably not going to be something that can be proven, if he's smart about it (not a guarantee). I just don't see a good ending. I don't see him playing great and then the Bears changing their offer to something he'd agree too. I don't see him caving on taking the Bears offer. Most likely scenario is he walks or is tagged after the season, which starts this process all over again. And if he walks, it'll likely be for nothing as the Bears will certainly spend money bringing in guys to wipe his comp pick away.

Yeah, my issue is a repeat of last year with Robinson. Robinson was unhappy with contract and we saw him quitting on routes, quitting on blocks, take like 4 weeks to return from a hamstring injury that was day-to-day (granted, can't proved he dogged it). Don't see too many players hold out/in for a new contract, publicly ask for a trade, not get either, and still play 100% of the games at 100% of his abilities. Sure there have been players who have held out before, come back without being paid and play well. There have been players ask for a trade, get paid and then play well. But this isn't a franchise tag thing. Smith isn't getting paid the average of the top 5 at his position. He's getting 9M when his peers are getting more than double that. These things don't typically end well.

Said they basically just missed it. Same problem, different people. Don't the Bears have a guy for this? That guy probably sucks. I assume it would be a different guy, but I'm pretty sure the guy Nagy had on reviews was terrible.

I thought the first team OL was actually solid last night. Stats show Fields was pressured 4 times on 8 drop backs 1- TE screen to Kmet (12 yards). IDK if this counts as a pressure, but it's a screen. That's how they work. 2- Incomplete dump off to Kmet. The OL was perfect on this play. Pressure came from blitzer who blew thru Herbert 3- Fields scramble (1 yard). Pocket was actually clean. He could have stepped up to throw, but just kept running. (Jenkins gets beat, but does maintain his block and drives the guy WAY up field). 4- Dump off to Herbert (4 yards). No pressure 5- Rollout to Kmet (19 yards). I don't think this would count as a pressure. 6- WR screen to Mooney (5 yards). No pressure 7- Rollout incomplete in end zone. This probably counts as pressure too. But it was a designed rollout and Fields had several seconds to throw, nobody open (though a better throw may get that TD to Mooney). This isn't on the OL as he was near the sidelines 8- Dump off to Herbert (-2 yards). Jenkins gets beat pretty bad, and there is a free (delayed) blitzer off the edge. I'm guessing plays 1, 2, 7 and 8 are being counted as Fields being pressured. Only 1 of these are on the OL. They weren't perfect by any means, but they were better than 50% pressure rate suggests.

The Bears #1 offense has scored 1 TD in preseason since 2017. Granted that includes no preseason in 2020 and Nagy famously not playing starters much despite them needing the reps for most of his tenure.....but it's not like that bleeds into the regular season or anything. And I know the plan is to play the starters only 6-10 snaps (was also called 1-2 drives, which LOL almost feels like planning two 3 and outs), but it would be really nice if the Bears #1 offense did something good in the first series. I know last week was nationally televised, but it was also NFL Network, and at 1 EST on a summer Saturday. Would be cool once to show the world that Fields isn't in a dire situation. Especially being on ESPN and all their talking heads are convinced the Bears are easily going to be the worst team in football. Not that they are wrong for believing that or that the offense scoring means this is a top unit, but it would be nice to have some positives to talk about a Bears offense at the proverbial Friday morning water cooler.

Getsy today said that there was only 1 play from Fields that he didn't like, and that was the play he should have drawn a late hit call. Said he scrambled too soon when his 2nd read was open. But otherwise a strong performance. I'll buy that. Even that sack by Jones, like I said, I think he could have gotten the ball out to Mooney like right when he planted his back foot. And maybe he could have stepped up, but that would have required quite the effort and anticipation from anyone, especially a QB in like the 3rd week of a new offense. The late hit play, there wasn't really any pressure, and I would have liked for him to throw that ball into the seats. Actually was a counted as a sack because he started his slide 1/2 yard behind the LOS.

IDK if it's going thru progressions too quickly or not having that anticipation yet. Like there are times you gotta see the defender flat footed and know know your WR is going to be able to give you the space to fit that ball in. Like on the sack, sure it was WAY quicker than you want pressure, but Fields had Mooney open right away with a pick happening. He could have gotten that ball out right away. Granted, I don't think he could have anticipated that pressure right away, but then he missed the chance to step up in the pocket and make another throw. Part of it is being in a new offense (again). But some of that is just his game. He likes to see it open before he throws it. To be fair, it's fine if he doesn't ever get the anticipation down (Cutler wasn't great at it, Watson isn't great at it). But that could be the difference between being a really good QB and being a Rodgers/Brady level QB. The 2 long completions were really nice though. The one to Mooney was anticipation, but that's clearly designed to go to him. Great placement on that ball as well. The one to Sharpe was him recognizing the blitz and putting the ball only where his guy could catch it. Literally perfect ball placement.

They were pretty vanilla with Fields in there. With Siemien and Peterman, I think they showed much more of what the offense will look like. Seemed like pretty basic stuff with Fields....handoff if under C, pass if in gun. There were screens, endarounds and actual passing concepts called (Dazz TD prime example). I would have loved to see Fields running some of that stuff, but I get why they didn't. And until proven otherwise, I'll assume it's purposeful instead of Nagy setting Justin up to fail.

So this is fun. Playing a little hardball it seems. The only reasons to take him off of PUP, since he's not actually injured (in order of least likely): 1. They are close to a long-term extension 2. Imminent trade, though IDK if a player has to be off PUP before traded. I think the new team would take him off PUP. 3. They are putting the pressure on him to start practicing or he will get fined for every day he misses. This probably can't possibly end well could it?

Eh. "Blowing all the cap" isn't even a thought. The Bears will have like 100Mil in cap next year. And based on the spending for this year, they are going to be hard pressed to even reach that number, unless they spend stupidly. Mack is a terrible comparison because of age, his already high salary, and the fact that trading him was partly in response to a lack of draft picks in the current year. Smith doesn't have an age argument, the high salary would be in the future which right now has no other high salary players (once Jackson, Quinn and Whitehair are gone likely after this year and before Mooney can potentially be signed). I get that off ball LB isn't a high impact position. And ideally, you'd only spend on QB, LT and truly the elites of the elite, but you can't make a habit of allowing 25 year old players, on a team devoid of young talent, to walk because he doesn't play your ideal position. And honestly, WLB is one of the positions (along with nickel and 3T) that Eberflus says are most important in his defense. Keep good, young players....when you don't have good, young players. I didn't love letting Daniels walk because you are almost certain to get older at the position and lose upside as well (Schofield much older, not as good run blocking). I definitely don't like letting Roquan go just to get worse at the position and also probably not getting much younger than 25, unless you spend an early draft pick on a position you in the same breath said isn't high impact, by allowing Roquan to walk.

Velus Jones is going to die like midseason then.

He's credited as a pretty revolutionary DC and won a title as a head coach. He's not the top of the top by any means but that seems pretty noncontroversial to me. By that standard, should a Dick Vermiel or Mike Holmgren be in? He didn’t even coach that long. LOL. Dick Vermeil is literally in THIS Hall of Fame class being inducted tomorrow. Holmgren will also be in. Also, Dungy coached for 28 years in the NFL, 13 as a head coach, and like was said he's the Cover 2 guy, has quite a large coaching tree at this point (including 2 of the best in Tomlin and Reich) and is the first black HC to win a Superbowl. His resume is slam dunk HOF worthy